ERRONEOUS NOTIONS CONCERNING SNAKES. 41 



that the Serpents must have both killed the child and Gripped off 

 its flesh, which latter is what no Snake could possibly do. People 

 are prone to exaggerate, and commonly evince a fondness for the 

 marvellous, which induce those of hot countries more especially, 

 where the species of Ophidians are numerous, to declare every 

 Snake met with as usually the most venomous one in their country ; 

 and thus travellers often come away with exceedingly erroneous 

 impressions on the subject. The Indian region surpasses every 

 other part of the globe in the number and variety of its Ophidians, 

 and almost every investigation of a limited but previously unex- 

 plored district, is tolerably sure to add largely to our previous know- 

 ledge of them. What, however, the late Sir J. Emerson Tennent 

 asserts of those inhabiting Ceylon, is equally applicable to other 

 parts of the Indian region. " During my residence in Ceylon," 

 he remarks, " I never heard of the death of an European which 

 was caused by the bite of a Snake ; and in the returns of coroners' 

 inquests made officially to my department, such accidents to the 

 natives appear chiefly to have happened at night, when the reptiles, 

 having been surprised or trodden on, inflicted the wound in self- 

 defence. For these reasons the Cingalese, when obliged to leave 

 their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the noise 

 of which, as they strike it on the ground, is sufficient to warn the 

 Snakes to leave their path." 



In some parts of the vast Indian region the natives regard the 

 innocuous Chameleon as venemous ; in other parts various Geckos, 

 or other Lizards. In Bengal there is a current notion regarding 

 a terrifically poisonous Lizard, which is termed the Bis-cobra, but 

 which has no existence except in the imagination of the natives 

 who bring the young of the Monitors and occasionally other well- 

 known Lizards as exemplifying the object of their dread. Again, 

 the little harmless Burrowing Snakes (Typhlops), which, superfi- 

 cially, have much the appearance of earth-worms, are there popularly 

 regarded as highly poisonous, though not only are they harmless, 

 but physically incapable of wounding the human skin. Strangers 

 who are little versed in zoology are commonly led astray by such 

 errors on the part of natives of those countries, and, unfortunately, 

 there is a number of stock vernacular names which are applied to 

 very different species in different localities. Thus Europeans 



